Traveling Magic Shop Part 15 (Patreon)

"The rules clearly state that you can't move like that," Seven told one of the children that she was supervising that had tried to move directly down the stairs rather than moving to the proper side of the stairs like you were supposed to.

"I could easily jump the railing," one of the Klingon children complained.

"Your character is old and feeble," Seven told the girl.

"That's because Andrew grabbed the warrior," she complained, annoyed that she'd gotten stuck playing the elderly professor.

"You lost the dice roll," Andrew Kim replied smugly, happy that his character could move an extra two squares because of his special ability.

"That's because Beth cheated," one of the other children complained.

"You can't prove shit," Beth Paris replied with a smile that missed innocent by a mile, mostly because she'd cheated because the Klingon had been bragging about how she was going to grab the warrior token and crush them.

One of the other Klingon children glared at Beth. "You've rolled seventeen sixes in a row."

"Just lucky," Beth replied with a smirk.

"You're telekinetic, I'd challenge you to an honor duel if you had any," the Klingon boy replied with annoyance.

"Any time," Beth replied, tired of dealing with the Klingon that barely had a thought in his head other than 'proving' that he was an honorable warrior.

"Kick his butt!" one of the other girls said cheerfully, tired of the Klingons continually spewing shit about honor any time they were annoyed.

"Save the dueling for when you're older," Seven told the Klingon child.

"She's cheating!" he complained as he glared across the table at Beth.

"Can you prove it?" Seven asked him.

"She's a Telekinetic," he complained.

"Just because she has the ability to cheat does not mean she is cheating," Seven pointed out, wishing the captain hadn't assigned her to watch the children that had shown up over the last couple of days as it wasn't an efficient use of her time when she could be working with Myst to upgrade the ship.

"What are the odds of her rolling seventeen sixes in a row?" he demanded, glaring at Beth.

Seven quickly calculated the odds in her head. "One in sixteen point nine trillion."

"That's more than one in a million, right?" he asked.

"Yes," Seven replied, making a mental note to make sure the child got remedial lessons in math.

"That means she's cheating!" he declared as he pushed his chair back and stood up.

Beth glanced over at Harry who was standing behind the counter then focused on the boy that was annoying her. "If I can prove that I'm not using Telekinesis to cheat, will you shut up about honor since you don't seem to have any?" she asked him, tired of the idiot's posturing and the sickening smugness she could feel from the little shit's mind.

"Fine," he snapped, knowing she couldn't prove shit.

"I don't need to cheat with Telekinesis," Beth replied as she picked up the pair of dice in front of her and rolled, getting a pair of fives. "I just need to roll the dice." She picked up the dice and rolled a pair of fours. "The dice are enchanted to roll whatever I want."

"Cheater!" he declared.

"None of the rules say anything about using enchanted dice, which means I'm not cheating," Beth replied with a smirk.

"Cheater!" he repeated, not having a good argument against her 'logic'.

"At least I know what honor is," Beth taunted as she picked up the dice she'd bought from Harry and headed for the door to the room with the books, tired of dealing with the klingons. She dodged the figurine he tossed at her then reached out with Telekinesis and picked him up. She spun the annoying brat upside down, her frustration at having to play nice with the idiots on the ship finally bubbling over. "Give me one reason that I shouldn't bash your fucking skull in?!"

"I'd make you clean up the blood," Myst told her as he walked back into the shop. "What's going on?"

"She's abusing her powers!" the klingon whined.

Beth turned to look at Myst. "He tossed something at me when I had my back turned and won't stop ranting about honor, something most Klingons don't have!"

Myst glanced at the figurine near the wall then looked around the table at the children he didn't recognize. "Is there a reason you don't like Klingons?" he asked as he used his upgrade ability to check the angry girl's abilities.

"My best friend is part Klingon, the smug bastards always give her shit about being part human," Beth complained, wishing that Captain Janeway had just left the Klingons to die since they caused more problems than they were worth.

"Fair enough," Myst replied as he headed over to the counter, reasonably sure the girl wasn't actually going to kill the spoiled little shit. 'She's probably talking about B'Elanna's daughter.'

"You can't let her do this!" the upside down boy screamed when he realized the adults weren't going to help.

Myst turned to look at Harry. "Has the annoying Klingon actually bought anything?"

Harry shook his head. "No, he kept ranting about Bloodwine and proper drinks, it was getting a bit annoying."

"In that case, I don't care if she bashes your skull in," Myst told the child, thinking about all of the spoiled rotten little shits he'd dealt with when he worked in education and knowing the spells on the shop would actually prevent any injuries.

"What?!" the Klingon demanded.

"Why should I care if you live or die?" Myst asked. "Feel free to toss him out an airlock."

"Just put him down, he's not worth the time you'd spend in the brig," Seven told Beth, knowing the captain would object to killing the child, even if Beth was most likely correct about his diminutive intelligence and belligerent nature.

"Fine, he's worthless," Beth replied as she twisted the klingon so that he wouldn't land on his head and dropped him.

"Die!" he shouted as he charged Beth.

Harry gestured and stunned the boy, causing him to crash to the ground. "Maybe he'll grow out of it."

"I doubt it," Myst replied as he turned to look at Seven, glad that he wouldn't have to deal with the little shit once he left. "Do you need anything else upgraded before we close shop and jump dimensions?"

"No, I currently have purchased enough subspace anomalies to study at this time," Seven replied, content with the products and upgrades that she'd already purchased.

"Works for me. Please bring anything you want to purchase to the counter, the shop is closing in five minutes," Myst announced, his voice carrying to every room in the shop.

"Pack up your belongings, we're leaving," Seven told the children as she walked over and picked up the unconscious child, figuring the Doctor could beam the child to the brig after he regained consciousness.

'At least they'll have a decent chance of making it back to Earth,' Myst mused as a couple of Starfleet officers walked out of the garden room with potted plants, one of which was a bush with glowing red leaves that he recognized from when he'd walked through earlier. "I'm not responsible for the results if you use the leaves for tea."

"I'm more interested in the plant because of the bioluminescent and air filtering properties," the man lied, looking forward to having something that would take the edge off dealing with the captain's insanity and being stuck in the Delta Quadrant.

"Cool, what do you have for trade?" Myst asked, ignoring the fact that the man was one of the worst liars that he'd ever run into. 'I can't say I blame him, I'd need something if I had to deal with Janeway on a continual basis.'

"Gems?" the man offered as he set a couple of replicated gems on the counter.

"Works for me," Myst agreed as he took the gems and put them under the counter. He turned to look at the next person in line that had a pillow with glowing runes on it. "I'm not responsible if you sleep through your alarm."

"That's fine," the woman assured him as she handed him the platinum coins that she'd replicated. "Tuvok keeps adjusting the shifts and I've maxed out the amount of sleeping medication I can take."

"It should give you a full night's sleep, just make sure you have at least five hours free," Myst warned her as he put the coins on the shelf under the counter.

"That's about all I have most nights, the asshole keeps breaking our shifts up," she complained, hoping that she could transfer to the Enterprise since she'd heard their officers were more reasonable.

"Best of luck," Myst told her, surprised that the crew hadn't mutinied already between Janeway insanity and Tuvok's attitude, not to mention Neelix's ‘food’. "Harry, can you make a round and make sure we don't have anyone hiding while I finish ringing everything up?"

"Sure," Harry replied as he headed for the book room wanting to check on his sister.

0o0o0

"Are we good?" Myst asked as he flipped the sign on the door to 'closed', having heard Harry walking out of the gardening room.

"We're good," Harry assured him, looking forward to jumping dimensions so that he wouldn't have to continually explain to a bunch of kids that they couldn't go home and that they'd never see their families again.

"I'm going to miss Kali," Rose admitted, having gotten to know the other girl quite well in the week they'd spent sorting the book room.

"We can't stay," Myst told her as he locked the door.

"I know," Rose admitted.

"Who wants to pull the lever?" Myst asked, trying to cheer everyone up.

"I'll do it," Harry replied as he sprinted toward the back room.

"I might need a vacation from my vacation," Myst admitted.

"Yep," Rose agreed as she walked over and started straightening up the games the children had left out. "Do you think we can go somewhere nice and tropical?"

"There's always a chance…" Myst trailed off as the entire shop shook for a second before things lurched into place. He sighed when the door unlocked as the sign flipped back to open. "So much for taking a break."

Rose snickered. "You'll get used to it."

Myst looked out of the window in the door and sighed in relief when he saw a city street filled with twentieth century cars and shops. "Looks like we're back on Earth."

"Any idea where?" Rose asked.

"The signs are in English but I'm not seeing any names I recognize, if you don't include the Subway shop," Myst replied as Harry walked back into the main room.

"We're in…" Harry trailed off as Myst quickly stepped away from the door as it opened and a girl wearing a hoodie and an old jacket rushed inside, looking a bit nervous about something.

"Do you have somewhere I can hide?" the girl asked in a rush. "There are some thugs chasing me."

"Sure, right over there," Myst replied as he gestured toward the garden room. 'So much for having a relaxing vacation.' He watched the girl dart into the other room then pulled his phaser out of his pocket and hid it behind his back. He plastered a smile on his face as he looked at the group of five teenagers wearing letterman jackets that were looking around the shop like they were looking for someone. "Can I help you?"

"Where the fuck did the girl go?!" one of the young men demanded.

"Why do you care?" Myst asked, curious if they had an actual reason for chasing her.

"The bitch stole something from us," one of the other guys told the shopkeeper.

"Do you want me to call the police?" Myst asked, fairly sure the guy was lying considering the way that one of the guys was looking at Rose.

"I just want to find the bitch," the guy said.

"What did she steal?" Myst asked, giving them a chance to convince him that they weren't full of shit.

"None of your fucking business," one of the guys said as he pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Where is she hiding?"

Myst glared at the idiot with the switchblade. "Does that mean you don't intend to buy anything?"

"No, we're not buying shit!" the guy snapped, wondering if the shopkeeper was terminally stupid. "Where the fuck is she?!"

"I've had a long fucking week, turn around and walk way," Myst suggested.

"Are you fucking dense? I'm going to fucking stab you if you don't tell me where she went!" the man screamed at the shopkeeper.

"Fuck it," Myst grumbled as he pulled the phaser out from behind his back and shot the teenager, causing him to drop to the ground.

Rose gestured and pushed the door closed with shadow tentacles as she didn't want them escaping.

"Shit!" one of the other idiots managed to shout before Myst shot the rest of them.

Myst scowled at the unconscious idiots sprawled on the floor. "Assholes."

"Do you think it's worth calling the cops or should we grab the hacksaw?" Rose asked playfully.

"We should probably talk to the girl first," Myst suggested, figuring they might as well start with the less drastic option first.

"I'll get her," Harry volunteered as he headed into the garden room.

Rose smiled as she used a couple of shadow tentacles to loot the idiots, taking their cash and checking their wallets for identification. "Does Winslow High or Brockton Bay mean anything to you?"

"Shit," Myst groaned, hoping he didn't have to deal with a bunch of lunatics or an endbringer attack during their stay.

"I'll take that for a yes," Rose replied. "What are we looking at?"

"Depends on the timeline," Myst replied, not sure where in the timeline they were or how closely this world resembled the web serial.

"Sorry about this," the girl offered as she walked back out of the garden area with Harry, a touch surprised to see Emma's minions sprawled on the floor unconscious.

"Why were they chasing you?" Myst asked the girl with long wavy black hair.

"I didn't ask but my ex-best friend has been trying to ruin my life and I saw her talking to one of them this morning," Taylor complained, wishing Emma would leave her the hell alone.

"Nothing like old friends to know where to twist the knife," Myst agreed as he used his upgrade ability to check the girl's abilities, less surprised than he probably should be that the first person he'd run into was Taylor Hebert. 'Shard: Queen Administrator? Yeah, not surprised. Powers: Drone Control and Multitasking, Drone Creation, Power Manipulation and Shard Communication? So much for her getting bug control.'

"Unfortunately," Taylor agreed. "What do you sell?"

"Twisted card games, magical furniture, weird hybrid plants, apple cider that restores people's youth and vigor, crystal balls that let people record memories, all sorts of books and lighters that give you the ability to control the flames while you're holding them," Myst replied as he skimmed the description for her Power Manipulation.

"Magic furniture?" Taylor asked skeptically.

"Just about everything in the shop is magic," Myst replied cheerfully as he held his hand out and conjured a purple fan of flames over it.

"How the hell?" Taylor blurted out, surprised that the shopkeeper had powers since she couldn't sense his shard.

"Like I said, magic," Myst replied with a smile as he let the flames vanish, more than a bit relieved that her ability to manipulate and copy powers only worked on parahumans.

"Magic doesn't exist," Taylor complained, wondering if he had a trump ability that let him hide his power or if he was using tinkertech.

Rose grinned as her 'clothes' changed into a supergirl costume. "Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"Or you're using some type of tinkertech that lets you change your clothes," Taylor suggested, wondering if she could get a copy of the tinkertech that they were using since the ability to instantly swap costumes would be useful.

Rose glanced between Myst and the girl. "Tinkertech?"

"It's basically alien tech that has been black-boxed by the alien computers that hand out powers to the locals," Myst explained.

"How do you know about the shards?" Taylor asked, surprised that he knew about the creatures that gave people powers since no one else seemed to have a clue about where parahuman powers came from or if they did, they weren't talking.

"I'm not from Earth-Bet but I've heard stories, stories that mentioned the shards," Myst explained, trying to explain things without admitting that her life was a story or at least a version of her was the subject of a story since she didn't have bug powers.

"If you're not from Earth-Bet, how did you get here?" Taylor asked.

Myst gestured at the counter. "This shop jumps between dimensions."

"That would explain why there's a shop where there should be an empty lot," Taylor mused. "Are you limited to pyrokinesis?"

"No, I'm basically a magical tinker and I can upgrade items or the qualities of objects or creatures, including powers," Myst explained, not seeing a reason to hide his abilities from Taylor since he doubted she'd run off and tell Scion before he jumped worlds.

"Do you have any magic costumes?" she asked, figuring she might as well ask since her tinker ability didn't include costumes and costumes with proper armor were expensive.

"That depends what you're looking for," Myst replied.

"Something that will keep me from getting killed by a stray bullet?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"That should be easy enough." Myst turned to look at Harry. "Can you drop the idiots off at the local police station or the school?"

"Sure, which one is closer?" Harry asked Taylor.

"The school's closer," Taylor replied. "It's only about two blocks while the closest station is eight and a couple of blocks over. Just take a left when you get outside and you can't miss the school."

"Dropping them off at the school sounds easier," Harry said as he used his metal ability to conjure shackles around the jocks' arms that he could use to drag the idiots to the school without making multiple trips.

"Are you a parahuman?" Taylor asked Harry.

"No, I'm just a wizard," Harry replied as he gestured at his face and changed his appearance with his shape changing power. He gestured and picked the thugs up by their shackles then hauled them outside, curious how long it would take the police or the fire department to cut them down if he chained them to the top of the flagpole.

"What do you want your costume to look like?" Rose asked as she changed her 'clothing' into a black latex costume like a superhero might wear if their name were Bondage Lass.

Taylor shook her head. "I don't think I can pull that off."

"Unless you let Myst upgrade your appearance," Rose suggested.

"People would notice," Taylor complained, not sure how she felt about letting a random cape mess with her appearance, even if he'd saved her from the idiots.

"Unless you drop out or transfer schools," Myst suggested, not seeing a point in staying in school.

"I'm swapping schools in January," Taylor admitted. "I just need to survive a couple more days until the break."

"That just means that now's the perfect time to upgrade your appearance and general level of fitness and give those last couple of days a miss, claiming a stomach bug," Myst suggested.

"I think someone would notice if I went from looking like this," Taylor gestured at herself, "to looking like a model."

"Were you wearing baggy clothes when you took your placement tests?" Myst asked, making a mental note to do something appropriately evil or ironic to Emma since Taylor wasn't bad looking, just a bit severe or striking rather than traditionally cute.

"I'm always wearing baggy clothes," Taylor admitted.

"Do you know any of the teachers at your new school?" Myst asked.

"No," Taylor admitted.

"In that case you're probably fine," Myst pointed out. "If anyone asks about your lack of glasses, just tell them that you're wearing contacts or that you had laser eye surgery. I doubt anyone will make an issue of it. Worst case, blame it on a tinker."

"How much to fix my vision?" Taylor asked, figuring she wouldn't be able to afford it anyway.

Myst shook his head. "That depends, are you planning on being a hero or a villain?"

"Hero," Taylor replied.

"In that case, consider it a free perk," Myst replied with a smile.

"Do you need permission for your power to work?" Taylor asked.

"No, but it's the polite thing to do," Myst replied as he pulled up the entry for her vision with his upgrade ability.

"Go ahead," Taylor told him, knowing that glasses were a liability when you were a cape.

Myst spent the mana to increase her vision to triple 'perfect' vision, giving her an edge. "How's that?"

Taylor took off her glasses and blinked a couple of times to get used to being able to see clearly without her glasses and was shocked at how sharp her vision was. "That's amazing, how long will it last?"

"The rest of your life," Myst replied as he spent the mana to make sure her vision wouldn't degrade because of time. "Do you have anything else you want upgraded?"

"Yes," Taylor replied, deciding that she was going to make some changes and start Arcadia with a fresh start.

“Breast size costs extra,” Rose joked, unable not to snag that low hanging fruit.

Taylor quickly whipped out her wallet.

0o0o0